Means for operating fireless locomotives



P. GILLI Sept 23, 1941.

MEANS FOR OPERATING FIRELESS LOCOMOTIVES Filed Dec. 3, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l aw MUG m m w w MG A W. A P w a Sept. 23, 1941. P. GlLLl 2,256,738

I MEANS FOR OPERATING FIRELESS LOCOMOTIVES Filed Dec. 3, 193a 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IllhlL INVENTOR. W M WTTORNFY 1 pensating vessel 1. superheater. may itheribe designed as a tubular coil, preferably located in the.- upper reservoir, or it may comprise elements connected in paral- I lel in allthree tanks, being in the latter case 1 designed for example for simplicitys sake as a I twinpipe,asjillustrated in the drawings.

the arm 10. arm 1| and the arm 15, and the rear end of the a shut-off member 4 and a throttle member 5 are disposed. The throttle member 5 is, in the embodiment illustrated, adapted at the same time to serve as the locomotive regulator. The valve 1 is provided with an arm 45 connected by means of a link 46 with one end of a pivoted arm 41.

The steam, is throttled by the throttle mem- 1 her 5 to the normal working pressure ofthe i locomotive and is superheated in the supe'rh'eat- 1 this valve. The concurrent rotation of the arms 18 and 19 is also limited by the adjusted position of the arm 1|. The valve operating arms 36 and 18 are thus interconnected and may be concurrently adjusted by the shift rod 31.

While the linkage 39, 38, 31, and 1| of the.

Walschaert gear remains in one of its fixed adjusted, positions the swingably pivoted linkage 14, 15, 16, 11, 18 and 19 is still free to reciprocate when actuated by well known connection to the driving wheels, as one end of the rod is slidably connected at 80 to the pivoted rod 8|.

ing devices 6 and then is conveyed to the comi The heating portio-n'of the .The compensating vessel 1 is preferably arranged so as to be inclined. slightly toward the j place a at which the steam for the auxiliary devicesis withdrawn. Thus, anycondensation' in vessel 1 .willbe discharged through the auxiliary devices and not through the engine cylinder.

1 A pipe 8 connects the vessel 1 with the loco- 1 motive cylinder l0 and a shut-off valve 9 is ar- 1 ranged in said pipe. This valve, which is shown more in'detail in Fig. 3, includes a rotatable plug 1 provided with valve ports 3|, 32 and 33 positioned within'a housing having ports 34 and 35. ;As shown in Fig. 3, none of the ports are in registry and hence flow through the valve is preve'nted. However, a'slightrotation of the plug 1 30; in either direction brings two. of the ports in the plug into alignment with the housingports to permit flow.

An arm 36 is secured to valve plug 50 and has .a pin and slot connection with the shift rod 31 1of .the valve gear, here shown as being of the conventional Walschaert type. :this valve gear has forward, neutral and reverse As is well known,

positions and the connection thereto of the valve '19 is such that the latter is closedwhen the valve ;.gear isin neutral position and is open when the ;gear is in either forward or reverse position. The shift rod 31 is connected through a bell crank lever,38,and a link 39 with a collar 40 having 1 threaded engagement with a vertical shaft 4|.

A horizontal shaft having crank handles 43 rotates shaft 4| through bevel gears 44 to thus raise or lower collar 40. shift rod 31 is pivotally connected to the arm 19. The arm 19 is fixed to the stud'12, an'end view of which is shown inthe drawings as pivoted in The other end of the the bracket 13. The arm 1| is also fixed to the stud 12 so that it rotates with the stud 12 and The arm 14 =pivotally connects the arm 15 is pivotally connected to the swinging rod 16. The forward end of the rod 11 is also gen]DY-andftransmits reciprocating motion to are arranged in the line 3 in front of the superheater and in the line 8 in front of the cylinder l9, said safety valves being so proportioned that the two of them can allow the maximum amount of steam passed by the regulator 5 to escape.

In order toprevent the safety valves from blowing off every time the regulator 5 is opened wide, which would result in loss of steam, said regulator is advantageously partly or entirely closed, by means of a steam piston 55 adapted to act upon the arm41, when. thepressure in the compensating vessel 1 reaches maximum permissible value. Piston 55 is reciprocably mounted in a cylinder 56 which is connected to-equalizer vessel 1 by means of a conduit 51. A spring 58 tends to move the piston to the right, as viewed in Fig. 4, against the force exerted by the steam. The piston55 is secured to a piston rod 59 which is connected by means of a link 6|] with an arm 5i. This arm is rigidly connected to arm 41. Consequently, upon a sufficient increase in pressure in vessel 1 to overcome the force of spring '58, the piston is moved to the left, thus pivoting arms El and .41 in clockwise direction. This in turn pivots valve arm 45 in a counter-clockwise direction to close the valve 5 more or less, thus reducing the supply of steam to vessel 1. In this manner the, regulator 5 cannot be opened further when the maximum permissible pressure is reached in the compensating vessel 1, while when such pressure is exceeded said regulator is closed sufficiently to prevent a further increase in pressure.

A further advantage of the arrangement illustrated in the drawings is afforded by the charging valves I8 and I9 and by the connecting line 20 between the reservoirs being disposed at that end of the locomotive. opposite the driver's cab, so that the said cab is in no way encumbered by high pressure lines. 7

-As the train heating and other auxiliary de-. vices, such as the whistle and the like, associated with the locomotive, require only low pressure steam, the exhaust steam from the cylinder is according to the invention used for operating The drawings illustrate such an arrangement and on reference'thereto it will be seen that a discharge pipe I3 is connected to the exhaustline 12, a reaction check valve I4 being located in the pipe 23. In order to increase the pressure of the exhaust steam a steam jet compressor I 5 is provided which, in the constructional form-illustrated in the drawings is supplied with condensation steam from b behind the shut-off member 9, which latter is, as above mentioned, coupled to the control. By this arrangement automatic dependency of exhaust steam and additional steam is obtained.

A check-valve I6 is arranged behind the'steam jet compressor l5, and preferably also a' come.

pensating vessel H, the additional steam for the compressor being if necessary automatically regulated in accordance with the condensation steam pressure.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a fireless locomotive, a high pressure steam accumulator, a pressure equalizing vessel, conduit means for conveying steam from said accumulator to said vessel, a throttling device in said conduit, a working cylinder, a valve for controlling supply of steam to said cylinder, a valve gear for operating said valve, means for shifting said gear to forward, neutral and reverse positions, a conduit for supplying steam from said vessel to said valve, a shut-01f valve in the last mentioned conduit, and means interconnecting said shut-oil valve with the valve gear shifting means operative to close the shutoiT valve When said gear is in neutral position and to open said shut-ofl valve when the gear is in forward or reverse positions.

2. In a fireless locomotive, a high pressure steam accumulator, a working cylinder, conduit means for conveying steam from said accumulator to said cylinder, 2. throttling device disposed in said conduit, a pressure equalizing vessel disposed in said conduit between said throttling device and said cylinder, means for interrupting flow of steam in said conduit from said vessel to said cylinder, manually operable means for adjusting said throttling device to control the flow of steam therethrough for varying the power output of the locomotive, and pressure responsive means actuated by rise in pressure in said vessel to close said throttling device.

3. In a fireless locomotive, a high pressure steam accumulator, a pressure equalizing vessel, conduit means for conveying steam from said accumulator to said vessel, a working cylinder, a conduit for supplying steam from said vessel to said cylinder, valve means for controlling the flow of steam from said accumulator to said cylinder, a shut-off valve in the last mentioned conduit, and means interconnecting said shut-off valve with said valve means to close the shut-off valve when said valve means stops the flow of steam from said accumulator to said cylinder.

PAUL GILLI. 

